Grounding and energy dispersion systems have been used historically to prevent current and voltage surges from damaging sites, structures, and electrical equipment. Conventional grounding systems may include elements such as ground rods, ground plates, ground electrodes, enhanced ground rods and chemical rods.
Grounding systems, like certain other electrical systems, often involve the collection of several wires that run from the grounded structure(s) to the dispersion system. Conventionally, such a collection has been achieved by the use of a bus bar. A conventional bus bar is a rectangular piece or bar of conductive material machined or adapted to receive fasteners connecting to the wires. The wires generally attach to the bus bar by some convenient and secure fastener, such as conventional nuts, washers, and bolts, which are received within a wire lug.
Because of its superior conductivity, conventional bus bars are most commonly constructed from copper. However, copper is a relatively expensive material, particularly for the robust systems capable of grounding lightning strikes. The value of copper has contributed to an increase in theft of grounding bus bars. In the grounding of often remote towers for cellular telephones, this problem is particularly acute.